


Strange Days

by Cluck



Category: That '70s Show
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-01-14
Updated: 2013-03-30
Packaged: 2017-11-25 12:05:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 17,885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/638730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cluck/pseuds/Cluck
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Taking care of Jackie Burkhart had always been a full-time job, even before she had developed this new... fiery... touch.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Tyranny and Mutation

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first 70s Show fic. Those of you who know the TV Show "Misfits" (go watch!) will notice that this story is a kind of crossover-not crossover. I just took the main idea of Misfits and applied it to our beloved gang, that's all. Everything else is not related to Misfits and events will not play out like they do in the show... Because that would be boring and not very creative of me. So if you don't know it: No harm done, you can still enjoy this fic. :)
> 
> Thanks goes to my beta reader HydeLuver!

1\. Tyranny and Mutation (great Blue Öyster Cult album)

Point Place  
Summer, 1978  
Forman's basement

Steven Hyde let his head fall back and sighed contentedly. He was lounging on the beaten couch with his eyes closed behind dark shades, listening to Blue Öyster Cult's "Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll." He was blissfully alone in the house and right now, no sounds could be heard except for Buck Dharma's and Eric Bloom's guitars. Heaven.  
The rest of the gang - minus Donna and Kelso who were probably on the road somewhere in Utah - had gone out to The Hub. Well, all except Eric had gone to The Hub. Hyde's skinny best friend had been dragged there. He had been dragged there by minuscule Jackie Burkhart, no less. Quite embarrassing, even for Forman's standards, Hyde thought. Kitty had gone to some church meeting and, much like his son, Red had been dragged along. Always one to seize a good opportunity when one presented itself, Hyde had stayed behind. Between a screeching Jackie, yelling Eric and a very confused Fez, it had been quite easy to do so without them noticing.  
Of course, he knew that Eric needed all the cheering up he could get and his best friend's current situation didn't exactly leave him cold but, seriously, Steven Hyde was just a human being after all. Eric and especially Jackie were driving him up the wall. If he had to spend one more goddamn evening listening to a never ending stream of "Donna, Donna, Donna, why am I such a skinny loser, Donna, Donna, Donna" and "Kelso, Kelso, Kelso, I'm a princess, Kelso, Kelso, Kelso, when will he come back?" he would completely lose his Zen and start with the ass-kicking. And Fez wasn't exactly helping either. The eternal exchange student never told them to shut the hell up, like Hyde did. Instead he kept talking about his virginity, which seemed to be eternal as well, and Big Rhonda of all people. Even high out of their minds they still kept to their whining. The only reason Hyde still started circles these days was that it helped him keep his calm. As soon as Kelso and Donna returned, they would get the ass-kicking of their lives. Well, Kelso would get twice the ass-kicking of his life since kicking Donna was pretty much out of the question. They hadn't even been gone a week now and already Hyde had to suffer the consequences of their abrupt departure. It was still early days but he didn't really believe that Forman and Devil Girl would get over their broken hearts and egos any time soon. Man, it was times like these he completely knew he was right to not do this relationship shit. It did your head in. Just look at Forman. He had never been the most masculine guy around but this disaster his on again off again relationship with Donna had become was slowly but surely turning him into a shadow of the wimp he had been before. Hyde had to admit that that was more Eric's than Donna's fault. Still, without their relationship none of this would have happened. And Kelso? He was still the biggest joke of them all. Running away from Jackie. Sure, she was annoying as hell and Hyde himself thought that having to marry her would probably be worse than a lifetime prison sentence, but hey, she was like what, five feet tall and about as threatening as … a butterfly or some girly crap like that. Kelso should have been able to just tell her NO without leaving the state. What a dumbass.  
Jackie's reaction to all this didn't surprise him though. She was acting as self-centered and spoiled as ever. Kelso wouldn't give her what she wanted for the first time in… ever, really, and she kept whining about it like a five-year-old. Plus, now that she didn't have Kelso to boss around anymore, she was starting to try it with the rest of them. Fez had always been putty in her hands and did what she wanted anyways but Forman used to not take up with her crap. Now? He still complained, sure, but he lacked his former determination and wit and ultimately just gave in. Thankfully, she hadn't started in on Hyde yet. There had been a moment right after Kelso's escape when he had nearly anticipated it. She always came running to him when she was sad. This time, she seemed to have skipped "sad" and gone right on to "pissed off", though. So Hyde still had to listen to her complain, complain, complain every time she was here but at least he wasn't the one being pushed around.  
He suddenly realized that the music had stopped and all he heard now was the static sound of the record still spinning after the last song on this side had ended. Damn. He had completely missed "Redeemed", his favorite on this album and why? Just because he had been thinking about his loser friends. Even now they were ruining his evening and they weren't even-

"Hyde."

Here. Right in front of the sofa, all three of them. Great.

"Where have you been, man? How could you just let Ice Princess here kidnap me?"

"You could at least have said something, Steven. That was just rude."

"They are driving me crazy, Hyde!"

Before he could stop himself, he abruptly jumped up from the sofa and pushed Fez over in the process.

"Listen up, Forman" he said in a dark voice, completely ignoring Fez who got up again and was about to have a fit,"I've said it before but I'm not going to say this again so get this through your fat head- You're like a brother to me man, but right now you're even more annoying than Kelso and I don't know how long I can handle that without killing you with something heavy. You fucked up and you know it. Either do something about it or forever hold your damn peace, Mr. I-Don't-Want-To-Be-Second-Choice-To-Casey-Kelso. Oh, and protect you from Dolly McScreechface here? How old are you, five? And YOU!"

He turned to Jackie who had just opened her mouth to give him a new nickname of her own. "What is wrong with you? No, wait, you know what, that would take too long. Just stop fucking talk about that idiot all the time. I swear, my head is about to explode from it. And Fez…." The slightly smaller man looked up expectantly, waiting for an apology."

"You're just weird, man. And now… Be right back."

He turned around, climbed over the back of the sofa and disappeared in his room leaving behind three stunned people.

Eric was the first to speak: "I'm not annoying."

"Yes, you are" came the impromptu reply from Jackie and Fez.

The only girl left in the group crossed her arms. "I'm not talking about the idiot all of the time."

"Yes, you are."

Hyde was back and fifteen minutes later the four of them were sitting around the low coffee table. Hyde was back on his chair, Fez on the other one and the dumbed ones on the sofa.

"This is… much better." Hyde smiled and blew out some smoke. "Much, much better. I don't even remember why I flipped out like that."

"What's so special about California anyway?" Jackie fell back against the back of the sofa and stared up at the ceiling.  
"It's starting to come back to me…" Hyde mumbled.

"At least the two of you had someone. Who did Fez ever have? No one!"

"Fez…" Eric spoke up, "Believe me you're better off where you are. I mean, I had Donna. I had her. And what did I do? I suddenly got big ideas and sent her away because I didn't want to be second choice! I should be lucky my stupid name was on the list at all."

Fez nodded after seeming thoughtful for a few seconds. "You're right, Eric. I guess it is better not to find the love of your life then losing her forever, like you did and- OW, Hyde! That hurt!" He held his head where an empty beer can had just hit him.

"Just cut it out guys. What's done is done. Just be cool, be-"

Jackie held out a hand. "If you're going to tell me to be Zen again, I'll kick you where it counts."

"Fine then, Midget. Eric and Fez be Zen, you just be mute and invisible."

The three of them fell silent but it wasn't the sort of comfortable silence Hyde would have hoped for after some fun talking. Jackie was glaring daggers at him. Hyde would have liked to strangle her himself. Fez didn't seem too impressed with him as well and Eric was still wallowing in his own misery. Not that there had been any fun talk in the last couple of days. He hadn't even gotten around to telling them about this amazing car he had read about. It ran on water and…. Come to think of it maybe he had already told them.

After a few minutes Eric sat up straight, a concentrated look on his face. "You hear that?"

"What?" Hyde asked.

"It sounds like it's raining outside."

Jackie rolled her eyes. "Well, duh, because it is. It already started right before we got back here but you were too busy with your skinny self to notice. Sounds like it turned into a little storm."  
Now that he actually paid attention to it, Hyde could hear the rainfall and wind outside. He still didn't get why it was so important to Forman though. Yeah, it was unusual for this time of year but not unheard of.  
"No!" Eric jumped up and frantically looked around. "My mother asked me to cover some of the vegetables in the garden. I totally forgot. She'll be angry and Red will kick my ass."

Hyde took a deep breath and got up. "We'll help you, man. I don't want you to have another reason to sulk and ruin my mood."

Jackie got up and poked Hyde in the chest. "Why would I help? It's not my problem he's too dumb to remember something as simple as that."

He took off his glasses for a moment and rubbed his forehead in exasperation. Then he suddenly had an idea and put the glasses back on. "You don't have to help us. We wouldn't want you to get hurt or do something wrong."

Then he stepped around her and it only took her a few seconds to react just as planned.

"Me do something wrong?! I am going to help but only to make sure you airheads don't muck it up."  
She then rushed to the door and stepped outside into the heavy rainfall. Fez and Hyde followed. Eric quickly grabbed a big blue tarp from next to the freezer and ran after them.

Once outside Hyde watched Jackie with a smirk on his face. She was the most infuriating person he knew and more often than not he'd like to kill her but that didn't mean he didn't enjoy seeing her soaked in the rain. That she was pissed off as hell was just an added bonus.

"Over here!" Forman said loudly over the sounds of the storm and pointed at a small vegetable patch a few meters away. Hyde's sunglasses were dangling from his t-shirt collar but it was still too dark outside to really see anything. Every now and then lightning flashed across the sky but it only made it harder to see after it got dark again. He didn't care what they were about to cover up anyway, he just wanted to get it over with. Rain always did funny things to his hair. Not that he would ever have said something like that out loud.

When they finally spread the tarp out, it was nearly ripped out of their hands, because the wind was getting stronger by the second.

"What is wrong with the weather in your country?" Fez screamed, frantically holding onto the tarp. They somehow managed to get it down to the ground and for a moment it looked as though Jackie was about to be blown away.

One can always hope, Hyde thought.

They proceeded to secure the tarp with rocks that were outlining the patch and suddenly something in the air seemed to change. For a second, everything seemed to come to a stop. Then there was a loud CRACK, bright light and then-

Only darkness. No sound, nothing.

And just as suddenly, the storm came back. Hyde was lying on his back. The first thing he saw when he looked around was the tarp hanging in one of the trees. Then he noticed Jackie who was lying next to him covering her eyes. He sat up and just then Eric did the same. He was a few meters away and shook his head, looking confused.

"Are we dead?" Jackie said sounding very scared and Hyde only heard her because he was right next to her.

"Um… I hope not. I don't want to spend eternity in Forman's garden…. Are you okay?"

She peeked through her fingers and shook her head.

"Are you hurt?"

"I don't think so."

"Okay." He got up and gripped her by the elbow, pulling her to her feet. They walked over to Eric and Hyde felt the tiny brunette clinging to the back of his t-shirt. There was scared and sad Jackie again.

"You okay, man? What the hell was that, it seemed like we were-"  
"Struck by lightning, yeah… How are we still alive?"

Hyde didn't know what to say to that so instead he looked around for Fez.

"Where's Fez? ... FEZ!"

They kept looking for a minute or so but deep down they were all nervous to still be out in this weather after what had just happened to them. Whatever it had been. They went back inside and after telling Jackie to finally let go of his Doors shirt, he went back into his room. Fez wasn't there either. That was weird. How long had they been out cold? It couldn't have been more than a minute, tops.

When he came out again Eric was sitting on the sofa and Jackie had grabbed one of the clean towels out of the tumbler and was drying her hair.

"That was really weird, man. Did all of you see that bright light or was it just me being high?"

Eric shook his head. "We're all a bit high but I saw that light too and I don't think we would imagine the same thing."

"I saw it too." Jackie said and went over to stand right next to Hyde, another towel wrapped around her shoulders.

"Do you think something happened to Fez?" She asked and bit her lip.

Again, Hyde didn't know what to say. Bitchy Jackie he could handle, but scared Jackie? Not so much. So he just went over to the laundry and got himself a towel as well. Then it happened.

He turned around again and saw Eric still sitting. He put the towel to his face for just two seconds to stop the water from running into his eyes and when he looked again there was Fez, right between him and Forman. He looked pretty scared but that was nothing compared to Jackie who started to scream and took a frantic step back, tumbling over a stack of records. Eric screamed as well, jumped and promptly fell behind the sofa.

Later Hyde would be very proud that he had managed to stand perfectly still even though Fez' sudden appearance in the middle of the room had scared him as well. He would also wish that he had been standing closer to Jackie, because what happened next was even scarier.

She tried to get up again but somehow couldn't. That was when Forman decided to be a gentleman, or maybe he just wanted to get further away from Fez. Whatever the reason, he got up quickly and went over to her. He held out his hand to her and when she reached for it he suddenly jerked her up violently and pressed her to him.

"God, I want you."

Neither Hyde nor Fez moved at first, because they thought they weren't hearing right. Eric was standing with his back to them and they couldn't see his face so surely they must have misheard. But then Jackie began to wiggle and yell and Eric just grabbed her tighter and started to pull on her hair.

That got them going and Fez was the first one to reach them. He grabbed Eric's hand in Jackie's hair and used his other hand to take one of hers that was clawing at Eric's arm. Just when Hyde joined them, Fez's grip tightened and he began to kick Eric's shin.

"No, I want her!"

Hyde opened his mouth but nothing came out. What the hell?


	2. American Beauty

2\. American Beauty

"Let go! LETGOLETGOLETGO!"

The high-pitched scream snapped Hyde out of his frozen state and he quickly decided to get rid of Fez first. He was still clawing at Forman's hand in Jackie's hair and kicking the other man wherever he could reach. Hyde punched him in the ribs, silently hoping that nothing would break. Fez immediately let go and fell to the floor gasping. Hyde then tried to disentangle Eric's hand without ripping out Jackie's hair but found that he couldn't. He did the next best thing and punched his best friend square in the face. Eric stumbled backwards and crashed into the shower next to the record set. He tried to get a hold on the shower curtain but only took it down with him. The last thing Hyde saw of him before he disappeared in a tangle of yellow and green was his bleeding nose.

Well, that worked like a charm, Hyde thought.

Jackie had already disappeared behind him and was peeking around his right shoulder. She was holding her head where Eric had pulled and had tears in her eyes. She wasn't crying though which came a bit as a surprise to him. Then again, this evening was just full of them.

"What… Have you…. What the hell's going on with you?" Not very eloquent but Hyde figured it was better than just staring like a moron.

"Why did you do that?" Fez was kneeling and breathing hard. "I was just standing there and then you punched me!"

"And me," came Eric's voice out of the shower. It took him some time but he eventually won the fight with the curtain and was able to get up. He was still bleeding and the collar of his blue shirt had turned dark brown, but as far as Hyde could tell, his nose didn't look broken.

"You weren't just standing there; you got all crazy and started ripping out Jackie's hair. You went all caveman on her, man."

"No way. I just helped her up and then you punched me!" Eric held his nose and was starting to sound like Kermit's retarded cousin. He went for his jean's pocket and fished out some tissue to help stop the bleeding. "And what happened to you? Why were you gone and then just… appeared like that?" He asked Fez.

Fez's face suddenly lit up in a stupid grin. "Ah yes, I was meaning to tell you…. I was invisible!"

Now Jackie spoke up again for the first time: "Foreigners can't do that."

Hyde turned around. "…. Kelso's stupidity rub off on you much?"

"But I was invisible! There was a light and then I woke up and you guys were yelling my name. I was talking to you and at first I thought you were ignoring me to be mean again. You do that a lot, you know. But then I came in here with you and I couldn't see myself in the mirror. I was invisible! I'm like a superhero!"

"You see? That's stupid. Everybody knows it's always Americans who are superheroes in comics and stuff."

Eric stepped forward. "Shut up, Jackie. Fez must have learned that trick somewhere and decided to trick us while we were still out cold from the lightning. That doesn't explain why Hyde hit us though."

"I told you. You went completely crazy. You said you wanted her and it didn't sound like you meant for redecorating the basement."

"Why would I do that? Don't get me wrong, we've all had our fantasies about strangling her at least once but tell her I want her? Come on."

"I don't know, man." He held up his arms in defence. "That's what happened. You took her hand and then Fez tried to help her and …. took her hand! Hey, show me your hands." He grabbed both Jackie's hands in his own and turned them over. For a second he felt something like a stab down his back and his vision turned slightly red. Then everything returned to normal just as abruptly and… Nothing. Just hands. Small, very smooth hands… He quickly let go. This was insane. They were all high and it was obvious that that was the reason for their odd behaviour. His usual supplier had been unavailable and so he had gone to somebody else. Clearly, that had been a mistake.

"Hey, I'm not a loser!" Eric said.

"What?"

"Jackie just said I was a loser."

"No, I-"

"Nobody said anything!" Hyde shook his head. This was it. This conversation was going nowhere while they were still high on whatever they had smoked earlier. What a fucked up evening.

"I'm never buying from that idiot Brad Colling again. His stuff was spiked."

"But I was invisible!"

"You're an idiot."

Hyde was about to go back to his chair and wait for the effects of the grass to wear off but was stopped when Jackie's arm that shot out in front of him. She had a determined look on her face and was pointing at Fez.

"Take my hand" Jackie told Fez.

With anybody else, further explanation would surely have been needed, but Fez had obviously waited for a chance to hold Jackie's hand or whatever else she would offer ever since he first laid eyes on her. He hurried over and greedily grabbed her outstretched hand. The moment they made contact it happened. His spine stiffened for a mere second and then he got a manic look on his face.

"Come here, I'm going to-"

Before he could say what exactly he was going to do and got a good hold on her, Hyde had him by the shoulders and pushed him away.

"What happened?" Fez asked once he had regained his balance.

Eric looked shocked, his bloody nose forgotten for the moment. "You just… Hey, did I do that just now?"

"Yes, you had your bony hands all over me!" Jackie crossed her arms over her chest and looked up at Hyde. "What's going on?"

Oh, damn her. It was always him she wanted answers from. Steven, why doesn't Donna want to go dress shopping with me? Steven, why is Kelso always cheating on me? Steven, when will Kelso come back? Steven, should I take Italian or French dressing? Steven, why are we suddenly trapped in a very bad episode of Twilight Zone?

How would he fucking know? Or care for that matter. But now was probably not the best moment to start that particular argument. There was enough going on already.

"I haven't the foggiest idea. It's either the weed has been tempered with or some government conspiracy. I read this article the other day where it said they were releasing gas into the air that melts our brains down to keep us from starting a revolution."

She slapped his arm. "Seriously? And you think I'm the stupid one? I want a good answer, Steven!"

"Don't make me kill you."

"Guys… there's something weird going on with me."

When all eyes shifted over to Eric, they immediately knew that he didn't mean his mangled nose. He was even paler than usual and was staring at Fez with wide open eyes. The blood flow had stopped and dried blood was all over his chin and mouth. All in all not his most attractive moment.

"Fez… Did you just say you hope I don't find your candy stack hidden behind one of the loose tiles in the shower?"

"What?! No! What candy?! There is no candy! … Wait, how did you know about my candy, I never said anything? It is my greatest secret!"

"So you didn't say it."

"Noooo! I'm not so stupid. I only thought about it."

Eric started jumping up and down, first pointing to Fez, then Jackie. "I knew it! I can hear what you're thinking! Before, Jackie didn't say I was a loser but she thought it and Fez thought about his candy and right now he's thinking about hiding it under the sofa next time! And Jackie hopes Hyde punches me again because she thought that was hot! And Hyde…. Hyde isn't thinking anything. Man, you're brain dead!"

Jackie and Fez both turned red and yelled at Eric to shut up.

Hyde was torn between telling Jackie to stop her disturbing thoughts and smacking Eric for saying he was brain dead. He prided himself in being the only member of the group with a working brain, thank you very much. But that would have meant he believed Eric's mind-reading rubbish and he sure as hell didn't.

"Yeah, you can read their minds. Sure, man."

"Yes, I'm telling you! It's like someone switched on a radio in my mind and now I'm listening to the Jackie and Fez Programme… Oh my God, this is a nightmare." He put his hands up to his ears. "This is…. EW! Fez, that's disgusting!"

Fez' face turned even redder and he took a step away from Eric: "Stop doing that, Eric! This is private!"

"Yeah, I'd like to have kept it that way, believe me. Seriously, that's just wrong."

"What was he thinking?" Jackie asked, sounding very interested and not in the least bit disturbed by all this.

Hyde rolled his eyes. "Wait, wait, wait. So, what, Fez can suddenly turn invisible, Jackie gives you two boners and Eric can read minds? And what can I do?"

"I told you, you're brain dead! I think I caught like a word from you a few minutes ago but there has been nothing since then. It must have been that lightning."

"I'm not brain dead! In fact, I have quite a few choice thoughts going around my mind right now and none of them are very nice!"

"But I can't hear you. Maybe I need to be closer." Eric took a few steps towards Hyde and stopped in his tracks just before it got too close for comfort for both of them. He had a very concentrated look on his face and for a few seconds, Hyde actually thought something was going to happen and got a bit uneasy. He snapped out of it soon though. Nothing was going to happen.

"Nothing."

Of course.

Eric turned to Jackie who had left her hiding spot behind Hyde's back and was standing next to him now.

"Think of something I couldn't possibly know."

His face soon turned from concentrated to confused.

"Tammy Carmichael went skinny dipping with Trevor Jones last Tuesday night even though he's still seeing Joni Lambert and when Joni finds out she's going to lose it and strangle Sarah. This might be your chance at head of the cheerleading squad…" He shook his head. "I never thought this combination of useless words and names would ever leave my mouth. I don't even know who these people are."

Jackie squealed: "Oh my God, that was right! You HAVE to come to school with me next week and tell me what Joni is thinking about at lunch! Oh, and Ken Fowler too, I think he's really into me!"

Eric ignored her and went right on to Fez. "Now you think of something I can't kn- goddam, are you STILL going on about your stupid candy? Nobody wants it!"

Fez looked shocked. "You're right! You're right but you're also wrong… Everybody loves candy!"

"So, Hyde, how come I don't get anything from you?"

What was it with all these questions he had no answers to tonight?

He decided to change the subject slightly. "Yeah, so you can read minds. Congratulations, man. Wonderful. Hey, Fez, turn invisible. Go on, do it."

"Okay…. Okay, I think it went something like this."

Fez closed his eyes and suddenly his whole body got rigid. At first it looked as though he was in big pain but then his expression just turned downright hilarious.

"We really should have listened to Kelso and called him Captain Pooface." Eric said laughing, holding his sides.

"I can't do it." Fez gasped, finally opening his eyes again. "I cannot control it." He looked deflated. "Man, what a rubbish superhero I am. I can't even control my super powers."

"Yeah, well, guess me and Jackie are better superheroes than you."

Hyde held up his hands. "Hey! Superheroes? Are you two drunk? I mean, what kind of shit life would that be where you three of all people were superheroes and I wasn't. You're all high and imagining things. Just sleep it off."

The next day

Forman's basement

"So, it turns out being able to read your parents minds isn't necessarily a good thing."

Eric let himself fall down onto the sofa. Thankfully his nose hadn't been broken and apart from a bruise, he looked as good as new. Hyde was sitting in his chair, one boot up on the table and watching The Price is Right with Fez.

"You still think you can read minds? Man, this stuff I got off of Colling must've been pretty strong if you're still feeling it."

"It was terrible. They were both thinking about what they did last night. You know, after they came home."

Hyde looked disgusted. "Forman, you're a sick bastard. Don't drag me into your little Mommy and Daddy fantasies. Is that why you were acting weirder than usual during breakfast?"

"Those are not my fantasies! I can hear their thoughts!"

"Yeah, well, why don't you tell Invisible Boy over there? I'm not interested."

Eric looked confused. "What are you talking about? We're alone."

Hyde shook his head. If Eric never got over this trip, he'd have to kill Colling.

"He is probably angry I hid my candy somewhere else now where he'll never find it and is ignoring me." Fez said. He was sitting on the other chair and looked pretty pleased with himself.

"Alright, Forman. I believe that you believe you can read minds. Just admit Fez is sitting right over there."

Eric got a strange look on his face. "No, he's not… We're alone. I haven't seen Fez all morning."

He would never admit it later on, but Hyde felt something like a cold stone settle in the pit of his stomach right then. Forman wasn't a good liar. Never had been. He seemed genuinely confused right now.

Fez clapped his hands. "Oh yes, I've done it again! I'm invisible!"

"How come I can see you then?"

"Er… I don't know. Hey, maybe I'm dead and you can see dead people! Oh my God, I'm dead…"

"You're not dead!"

"Hyde, who are you talking to? This is not funny."

This was it. Hyde decided to put an end to this stupid show once and for all. His eyes fell on a small hand mirror lying on the table in front of him. Thinking Jackie must have left it there last night, he grabbed it and went over to Fez.

"Okay, so Forman says you're not here and you think you're invisible or dead or whatever. Take a look. I don't think ghosts or invisible people have a reflection, do y- SHIT!"

The mirror fell to the floor with a loud CLANG and broke into three pieces.

"You have no reflection! Why do you have no reflection? Do people in your country not have reflections?!" He would usually have kicked himself for this Jackie-esque question but damn, man, he had never seen anything like this before. Fez was standing right next to him but when he had lifted the mirror to his friend's face, there had been nothing. Just the blank concrete wall behind them.

"I told you!"

Eric got up from the sofa really slowly and held up his hands in a soothing matter. He took a few small steps backwards, his eyes never leaving Hyde.

"Okay…. Calm down. So, you say Fez is over here right now? He is invisible?"

Hyde couldn't believe he was going to say this but "Yes."

And just as the word left his mouth, he heard a weird zapping sound and Eric started to laugh.

"Fez, I can see you again! Oh my God, this is brilliant! You have to believe us now! Fez can turn invisible and I can read minds! Well… except for invisible people and you."

Hyde just stared open mouthed at Fez, then Eric. Was this really proof? Well, it seemed to be proof. He just didn't know for what exactly yet.

"So we all have a super power, except for you, Hyde" Fez laughed.

"Wait, guys, I think I'm about to have a very bright moment", Eric said. "Last night I said I thought I heard your thoughts for just about a second and you couldn't see Fez yesterday, right? And when you touched Jackie you didn't go crazy like us. Did you feel anything?"

Not for the first time in his life he was glad he was wearing shades. "Nothing much, man…"

"So you're immune! It takes a short while but you're immune to our powers. Immunity Man! That's pretty lame but at least you can do something." Eric looked at both of them with an ecstatic grin on his face. "And now that you believe us, Hyde-"

"I never said-"

"I can tell you about my plan! I thought a lot about it ever since Donna left but now it's a sure thing: I'm going to California. I'm going to win Donna back and this new ability is going to make sure she'll take me back. It'll be a piece of cake. I'll know everything she's thinking and make sure I only do and say the right things. It will work for sure!"

Hyde only saw one problem with this plan. Well, two actually.

"Even if you can read her mind – and I'm not saying you can – how will you make it to California? Red will have your ass if you just leave and he'll never allow it if you ask. And even if you just go for it… Do you really think reading her mind will go down well with Donna once she finds out? I mean, you are gonna tell her, right?"

Eric looked torn. He obviously hadn't thought about Red and the ethical implications of this new-found "ability" yet.

"Of course I'll tell her… I just want to make sure I do everything right. I can't lose her again. And Red… well, he'll just have to live with it. He always wants me to be a man and if going to California to bring my girl back home isn't manly, then I don't know what is."

Hyde breathed out heavily. "Oh, I'm sure Red will be able to live with it. I'm more concerned about your ability to live once you come back. Just wait for a bit… Until your head is a bit, uh, clearer…" And maybe this weird… whatever is going on, has worn off.

Eric completely ignored him though. "I'll have to practice. I can't act strange when I see her again. Hearing her thoughts has to be normal to me. I'm going to The Hub to practice!"

With that he headed for the door.

"Wait!" Fez called. "I'll go to the gym and practice turning invisible in front of the girls' locker room!"

Left alone and confused, Hyde decided to go upstairs and make himself a sandwich. He didn't know what to believe in any more and hoped everything would resolve itself over a little time.

Red was sitting on the kitchen table when he entered the kitchen. It was early Saturday afternoon so he didn't have to go to work. He was reading a paper and only took a quick look at Hyde, nodded, and then continued reading. Whatever it was he was reading at the moment didn't seem to be good news because his expression was even darker than usual.

Hyde was about to open the fridge but turned around instead when the telephone started ringing. He knew Red wouldn't answer it and Kitty was nowhere to be seen or heard so it was left to him to take the call.

"Yes, Forman residence" he said in a false cheery voice which earned him another look from Red.

"Steven, is that you?" A female voice sniffed into the receiver.

"Jackie? What's going on?"

"I need help. I came to the mall to go shopping and some really weird stuff is happening. You remember what happened last night, when Eric and Fez touched me?"

He gripped the receiver tighter and narrowed his eyes.

"Yeah…"

He heard her take a deep, shaky breath. "It happened again and this guy is watching me. I don't want to go home alone. I'm really scared. Can you please pick me up?"

"You stay close to the phones, where people can see you. I'm on my way."

Within seconds he was out the back door and headed for his El Camino, not even caring to say goodbye to Red who was once again completely immersed in his paper.

It only took him about ten minutes to reach Point Place's small mall but it felt much longer to him. Jackie really did sound scared over the phone and even though he wasn't quite ready to admit it yet, there was a possibility of this whole… power-thing being true after all. He had seen how Fez and Eric reacted to her touch last night and even though Fez had always had a crush on her, he had never been rough with her before. Forman on the other hand merely seemed to tolerate her most of the time and wasn't a very forward guy when it came to girls anyway. So this kind of behaviour had been even more out of place for him.

He wasn't blind. Jackie was hot and he knew it. Hell, she knew it, everybody knew it. She was used to – sometimes unwanted – attention but this sort of violent behaviour Eric and Fez had displayed must have scared her and the thought of that happening to her while she was alone didn't sit well with him at all. He wasn't a very soft guy and sometimes not even a very nice guy, but over the last few years he had learned one thing: A crying Jackie Burkhart was his kryptonite. He avoided thinking about the exact reasons why for quite a while now. He was quite sure he genuinely didn't like her. He really was. But that didn't change the fact that he was going to jump anybody in that mall who had dared touch her.

He hurried into the mall as soon as he parked his car. He didn't come here very often – had actually told Jackie he'd sooner be found dead than hanging around the mall on more than one occasion in the past – but he knew the payphones were located at the back of the first floor, next to a Druther's restaurant. It took him a short while to spot Jackie because the place was packed as hell. Hyde didn't get why many people enjoyed shopping so much. In his opinion, the only place here worth taking your money was the record store on the second floor and even that was inferior to other, smaller ones he knew. All thoughts about the sense and nonsense of capitalism were forgotten however, when he saw her standing directly in front of the payphones, just as he had told her. She really must be scared, he thought. She usually just did whatever she wanted and not what others told her to. Especially in a place like this where there would have been many other things for her to do – like looking at shoes for four straight hours.

There was a tall young man standing next to her, talking to her. She didn't look very comfortable and was slowly taking small steps away from him. The guy didn't mind at all and just made up for whatever space she was trying to create between them by taking two steps for each of hers. As Hyde approached he could see that the other man was about half a head taller than him but he wasn't very impressed. He could take him if he had to.

He grabbed her by the arm and pulled her further away. Jackie let out a loud gasp. It was obvious all her attention had been focused on the intruder so she never saw Hyde walking towards them.

"Let's go" he said to her. From the quick look he had gotten at the other guy he couldn't tell whether he would let up so easily, but it was always worth a try.

"Excuse me, I am talking to her."

Okay, no easy way out then. Just as well. Hyde turned around and mustered the other man from head to toe. There was absolutely nothing unusual or very noteworthy about him. Tall, blonde, blue eyes, straight nose. A face one would easily forget as soon as it was out of sight.

"Yeah, well, I'm taking her home now, so I guess you're done talking to her."

Blondy didn't look the least bit impressed by this and just gave Jackie a lazy smile. "Oh, I don't think so. In fact, I believe there is a whole lot of talking in store for me and this beauty."

Okay, so there was something noteworthy about this guy. Even after just two sentences, he was one of the weirdest and creepiest guys Hyde had ever met. What the hell was he talking about? Jackie stepped closer to him and looked up with wide eyes. He had been right – she was scared. But for some reason she seemed to be scared for him and that was just weird. First of all, she had seen him fight for fun or for real lots of times and should know that he could hold his own. Second, they weren't even very good friends, right? So why was she so worried? He ignored the low voice in his head that wanted to know why the hell he was even here if they didn't care about each other all that much.

"Listen, man, I don't want this to turn into a fight, but if it does, I'll win. So just back off."

His plan was to just leave without causing a big scene but Blondy had other plans: Before Hyde could turn him and Jackie around, he grabbed her arm and yanked hard. Alarm bells started to ring in Hyde's mind and before he really knew what was happening, his fist shot out. Blondy let go of Jackie and stumbled back. Looked like his nose wasn't going to be straight anymore.

Hyde couldn't believe that this was the third time in just over 12 hours that he had had to throw a punch for Jackie. This was turning into a full time job. Jackie had stumbled backwards and into one of the phones. He gave her a quick glance to make sure she was alright and then focused on the weirdo again.

The reaction he now got was far different from what he had expected: Instead of cursing or trying to attack, Blondy just held his nose and… chuckled. Hyde had just broken his nose and that guy actually chuckled.

"I'll be seeing you." This statement, made with certainty in his voice, was aimed at Jackie. He then turned to Hyde and narrowed his eyes: "And you'll wish you never did that."

With that, he turned around and left. A crowd of people had formed around them but he just pushed through.

Hyde decided to do the same before someone called security, grabbed Jackie and didn't let go until they were out of the mall.

"Are you alright?" she wanted to know once they were finally outside again.

"Forget about it. What about you? Did he hurt you?"

"No…."

He could tell there was something she wasn't telling him.

"You get into my car now and I'll drive you to the Forman's. You tell me everything that happened today, especially about this weirdo back there. Then we wait for the other two idiots to show up and talk about what the hell is going on here. – Get in."

They had reached his car and without even noticing, he ripped open the passenger door, waited until she had climbed in and then slammed it shut.

Jackie did notice and even though she was still scared from what had happened earlier, she had to smile. Never mind that he had stepped in and saved her from this psycho, Steven Hyde had just held the door for her.


	3. Debra Kadabra

"It was crazy. I bumped into this guy and at first I thought he was really cute but then he started yanking at me and actually tried to get his shirt off. Then, this old man tried to help me, grabbed me and ugh, what happened then was just gross. I'm lucky the next person trying to help were these two lumberjack girls, like Donna you know. I think they were a couple but whatever. They got the guys off me and then they couldn't even remember what they had done, like you two last night. That's when I decided to call here and ask Hyde to get me. He was the only one who could touch me yesterday and he's also the only one around here who knows how to throw a good punch. On my way to the phones I saw this other guy watching me though and he kept following me. It's like I got even hotter over night or something."

Listening to Jackie talk a mile a minute was usually enough to give Hyde and any other guy with working ears a headache, but right now it just made him even more furious than he already was. He was listening to her account of what had happened earlier for the second time now. Eric and Fez had just returned from their "experiments", as they called their questionable activities at The Hub and the gym.

But he didn't care about Fez or Eric at the moment. He was fully focused on what he'd do tomorrow. He would go back to the mall and maybe Blondy would be there again and then he would…

Stop it!

"Woah, man, are you okay?" Eric asked. "That looked as though it hurt." He was referring to Hyde just slamming the empty beer can into his forehead.

"Never been better." Still sitting on his chair, he threw the now battered beer can into the bin next to the door. Something was wrong with him. The lightning must have caused some severe brain damage.

"Yes, well, I went to the gym-"

"I wasn't done yet, Fez!"

"Yes, you were!" Fez said angrily. "We are always listening to you blah blah blah, now it's my turn! So," he seemed to calm down immediately and started to grin. "Like I said, I went to the gym. Before I even went home and got my fancy sports clothes. You know, those really tight shorts and the orange muscle shirt that hugs my manly chest so well."

Yes, they knew and no, it wasn't a pretty picture.

"I didn't go to work out, of course, but I thought it would give the ladies something to look at. That and the last time I went without my sports clothes the fat security lady Linda kicked me out. So I went to the ladies room and concentrated really hard to turn invisible. Then I went inside and oh, it was great, boobies everywhere!"

Jackie just gave him a disgusted look while Hyde and Eric looked quite envious.

"And then they kicked me in the nuts because I wasn't invisible at all. It really hurt", he pouted.

Eric laughed. "That is so lame. Unlike you two losers", he pointed at Jackie and Fez, "I am completely cool with my power. I always knew I was born to be a hero, like-"

Jackie held up a hand. "Don't say it. Do not say Luke Skywalker."

"… Batman. I'm like Batman, only without the weird outfit and the car… and without the strength. Actually, I'm not like Batman at all. But I'm still better at this power thing than you guys."

"How'd it go at The Hub then?" One of Hyde's eyebrows was raised above the brim of his sunglasses and he crossed his arms. He couldn't imagine that Forman hadn't made an ass of himself one way or another.

"Great, I just said that I was completely cool. Weren't you listening to me? I was cool. What's wrong with you? Stop looking at me like that!"

Jackie laughed. "You made an ass of yourself, didn't you?"

"No! I…" He sighed. "I didn't exactly stay at The Hub. It got annoying after just a minute. There were like 20 people there and I could hear all of their thoughts at once! It was crazy. So I ran out and tripped on the way. I kind of… banged my head on the door but, you know, completely cool."

He looked pretty embarrassed and a bit troubled so Hyde decided to cut his buddy some slack for once. There were more important things to talk about now anyway.

"I read in the paper that the storm last night was pretty bad. Some houses got destroyed… But the weird thing is, even though it had already started to rain quite early, the actual storm lasted only for about three minutes…" He looked at his friends and took a few seconds to decide whether he should ask them what was on his mind. It would mean acknowledging that something weird was going on but then again he would be an idiot if he didn't do that after what he'd seen the last two days.

"You guys think more people got hit?"

He could tell from their expressions that neither Jackie nor Fez had thought about that. No surprise there. Give Fez just the slightest opportunity to see breasts and he forgets everything else, including his own address. Jackie was always so absorbed with herself that he didn't even know whether she was aware of the fact that other people had lives of their own as well. Eric on the other hand was right with him.

"I thought about that too and I think it's entirely possible. I'm just glad my parents were indoors last night. Red with super powers is about the scariest thing I can imagine… Oh my God. What if Laurie was in town last night?"

"She was already a super slut before the storm." Jackie dead-panned, making the guys laugh.

"But how could a storm do that to us?" She asked after a few seconds and then turned to Hyde immediately. "It's not a stupid conspiracy!"

He looked at her incredulously. "How would you know, man? You probably don't even know how to spell that word."

She was really getting on his nerves. She never had a clue about anything important but always talked like she knew it all. What else could it be if not a conspiracy?

Before the two of them could get into a real argument, there was a loud crash upstairs, causing the four of them to get up and slowly walk towards the stairs. Eric was first in line and stopped just as he reached the foot of the stairs.

"Mom? Is everything alright?" He asked, sounding unsure.

Hyde rolled his eyes and pushed him out of the way. "Dammit Forman, be a man." With that he jogged upstairs.

The other three followed slowly and were greeted by dead silence when they finally reached the kitchen. There was a drawer lying on the floor, surrounded by cutlery. It didn't take a genius to figure out that was what had caused the crashing noise. Hyde was standing next to Eric's mother. He had taken his sunglasses off and both of them were staring open-mouthed in the direction of the sliding door leading outside.

Hyde knew when the others joined them in the room because it didn't take very long for Fez' and Jackie's loud laughter to ring out. He couldn't blame them though. What he was looking at must've been one of the funniest things he'd ever seen but it was also quite disgusting.

Bob Pinciotti was standing in the doorway. He was wearing a grotesque yellow wife beater with red and green ponies adorning it. That wasn't the funny thing though: His usually permed hairstyle was replaced by long, brown strands, he had a beard that made Hyde's look like a joke in comparison and his arms were covered in dark hair as well. Hyde would have figured Bob had simply decided to change one bad wig for another had it not been for all that other hair.

"Goodness, Bob… You, er, I wasn't expecting you." Kitty let out one of her manic, nervous laughs.

"Where is Red?" Bob asked. "I want him to see what he did to me."

"You look horrible." Jackie said with a scrunched up nose. "Like a dog."

Fez looked a bit sad. "Kelso would love this."

Bob completely ignored them and pointed a finger at Mrs Forman. "Where is he, Kitty? If slipping me some weird hair-growth juice is his way of getting at me for breaking his lawnmower last week, he has gone too far. It was just a stupid accident! And this is serious bodily harm! He should never even have left the mower so close to the street if he loved it so much!"

"Oh, he's asleep. I'll just go and…" With that she was out of the kitchen in a hurry, leaving the teenagers alone with a very angry and hairy Bob.

"Digging the beard, man." Hyde finally said.

"Oh, shut up!" Bob snapped and sat down at the kitchen table. Hyde only hoped he wasn't shedding too much hair on the way. Gross.

Eric leaned against the counter. "So… It was like this when you woke up, Mr Pinciotti?" It was obvious he had gotten over the first shock and was now trying hard not to laugh.

He was met with a dark glare. "No. I looked perfectly fine this morning. I went to the shops and when I came back home it was still all normal. Then, suddenly, I look like this. And as soon as I start shaving it, it just grows back!"

Jackie frowned. "Hair doesn't grow that fast."

"Oh, really?" Bob looked at her as though she was stupid. "Yes, thank you. Once I had figured that out I knew somebody must have done this to me. I knew Red was angry with me for his stupid lawnmower but I never would have thought he'd do something this terrible to me. I thought we were friends." Now it seemed like he was about to cry. "It wasn't even a very fancy lawnmower."

The teenagers looked at each other, silently debating who would have to comfort Bob. He may be hairy, he may be gross but he was still Donna's father. That made the whole thing Eric's problem, as far as Hyde was concerned. Donna was his ex-girlfriend and he was currently planning to get back on her good side after all. Besides, maybe his mind-reading could help him say the right thing.

In the end, it was Fez who went over to Bob. Hyde and Jackie gave Eric a pointed look but the youngest Forman was either avoiding eye contact or had suddenly spotted something very interesting and stare-worthy in the sink.

Fez padded Bob on the shoulder, which made Hyde cringe. How could the foreigner not be disgusted by that amount of hair? Were werewolves native to his country?

"Don't be sad. Kelso once glued me to the TV and Hyde has made fun of me in front of hot girls many times. That's what friends do. The more it hurts the more they love you."

Bob laughed without humour. "If that's true, Red is close to proposing."

As if on cue, Red came barging into the kitchen and came to an abrupt standstill once he saw his neighbour at the kitchen table. Kitty was right behind him.

"Good God, Bob…. That's where I eat!"

Donna's father got up and stretched out his arms. "Why did you do this to me? You think that's funny?"

"Do what? I haven't done anything!"

"He's telling the truth," Eric piped up. "He has no idea what has happened to you."

All eyes zoned in on him and Hyde silently cursed, thinking that if Eric didn't want to be dragged to a mental hospital he should keep his trap shut about what other people were thinking.

Eric seemed to realize his mistake. "Just guessing. I mean… he looks pretty surprised."

"That's because I didn't do anything!" Red exploded. "What do you think I did? Put something in your shampoo? I would rather play chess with a Commie than be caught anywhere near your shower."

"You won't admit it then? Fine, but this isn't over. I'm coming back with proof and a lawyer." After one last look around the room, Bob left through the back door.

Kitty went to the door as well and yelled after him. "Please come back! We'll talk about it and I'm sure we'll find out how this happened. I'll even shave you!" When she realized he wasn't going to come back she turned around and faced her husband.

"Shave him, Kitty? Are you serious?"

"Well, someone has to do something! What if he really does get a lawyer?"

"He can call as many lawyers as he wants. He won't find any proof because I didn't do anything," Red said and then looked around at the teenagers. "And if I find out that any of you have something to do with this my foot will have the last word. Now go, do something useful with your summer. Like get a job or five." With that, he was out of the kitchen as well and soon followed by Kitty who let out one last, nervous laugh.

The silence that followed was finally broken by Eric. "That was disturbing."

"What do you think happened? What were they thinking?" Jackie asked and Hyde was surprised she was for once inquiring about something important.

"Bob was mainly angry and thinking about how he now has to buy shirts that actually cover him up. You won't see me complaining about that. And Red was just as surprised and disgusted as we were."

"I never thought I'd say this, but I hope he can go back to wearing his usual perm wig soon," Hyde said. He then looked at his watch and decided it was still early enough in the afternoon to get some things done. First of all, he would pay Brad Colling a little visit and ask him about the film he was selling. He was still hoping that was the reason for all this. Then he'd maybe go look for Leo. He hadn't seen him the last two weeks, not even while he was working his regular shift at the Photo Hut. Had Leo even opened the Hut on Hyde's days off?

"Jackie! Stop thinking about Hyde doing that and go back to singing Dancing Queen in your head!" Eric suddenly exclaimed.

Hyde groaned. He had always known this would happen again. Experience had taught him one thing: The more of an ass he was to her and tried pushing her away, the more she liked him. And now he had gone and done the one thing she seemed to like most about him: Not only had he been an ass to her… he had been an ass who still came running whenever she needed him.

Jackie turned crimson and pointed an angry finger at Eric's chest. "Stop doing that! If you don't stay out of my thoughts I'm going to start telling some stuff the others would love to know about you. Like what happened two months ago. You know, where you went. That place you wouldn't want anybody to know you went."

"Where?" Hyde and Fez asked at the same time.

She didn't answer them and instead grinned at a suddenly very pale Eric. "I knew not telling anyone about it back then would come in handy one day!"

Five minutes later Hyde was sitting in his Camino and pulling out of the driveway. He could see Jackie moping by the back door through the rear view mirror. She had asked whether she could come along but he had told her no, of course. Why would he say yes after all? He only hoped that his helping her out at the mall hadn't caused her stupid girly crush on him to surface again. Sadly, recent events seemed to indicate otherwise. He would have liked to believe she was only fantasising about him because she thought he was hot and not because her ultimate goal was to tie him down and turn his life into a never ending hell of Donnie Osmond concerts, presents and matching outfits.

This was Jackie after all, who was he kidding.

After some debating whether he should go to Colling's house first, he decided against that. He and his friends liked to hang out in a small park close to the High School, drink beer and tell stupid stories. The park was like Forman's basement for them, so he should probably go there first. It didn't take him very long to get there and he was even able to find a good parking spot close to the front gate. Considering his track record so far, something terrible was about to happen to him after this little bout of luck.

His luck didn't seem to run out any time soon though because it only took him about ten minutes to find Colling and his friends. The park wasn't very big though and rarely seemed to have visitors besides those couple of teenagers, so maybe it wasn't luck after all.

Hyde spotted Rebecca Sykora first. She was two years younger than him, but like every male student at Wisconsin High, he knew her and her fabulous legs. She was very tall, very blonde and never seemed to talk much. Three major plus points in Hyde's book. Too bad she was also Colling's devoted girlfriend and enjoyed listening to KC and the Sunshine Band. Now, that was a big fat minus right there. He'd rather listen to the Carpenters all night long than sit through one of their LPs and that was saying something.

He was about fifty metres away from the group when he heard Rebecca's excited voice squealing:

"Go on, you promised to show us!"

Hyde realized the group of four hadn't seen him approach yet, because Colling had his back to him and was staring into the distance. His friends seemed to be paying close attention to only him. He didn't know why but something in Rebecca's voice caused him to halt in his steps. Then he was overcome with a strange feeling, almost like a premonition, as if something big was about to happen. Colling held up an arm as if to ask for quiet. Nothing happened for the next few seconds… then a minute.

And then… still nothing.

After about 90 seconds, which seemed much longer to Hyde, he let out a breath. What the hell was wrong with him these last few days? He was slowly but surely turning into a scaredy cat… Scratch that, he was turning into Forman. He shook his head and was about to take a step forward when a loud, splintering noise ripped through the quiet. He jumped back and put his arms over his head out of reflex.

The noise, whatever it had been, was followed by loud cheering and he risked a glance in the direction of Colling and his friends. What he saw there caused his mouth to hang open wide and his arms to slowly drop back to his sides:

Beyond Colling and his cheering friends stood a group of trees, what kind Hyde couldn't tell since he had never been the tree-hugging-hippie type. Nothing out of the ordinary, they were in a park after all. What was definitely not normal though was that one of the big trunks seemed to be split in half. It looked almost as though it had been ripped apart.

Had it been like that before? No way. Hyde would have noticed, just like he noticed now.

Colling turned around, facing his cheering friends. He always seemed very clumsy. He was so tall and scrawny that his body always seemed at odds with any kind of movement.

He was the first to spot Hyde and waved at him after hesitating for a few seconds.

"Awesome, right?" he said, when Hyde joined the group with slow steps. Rebecca and his other two cronies – Hyde recognized them from school as Jake "Nutjob" McIntyre and Susi "No Panties" Rivers – looked unpleasantly surprised and shot each other unsure looks.

Hyde couldn't think of anything smart to say, so he just went for the most obvious thing.

"What the hell was that?"

"I call it Xylokinesis," Colling smiled. "I can manipulate wood!"

The fact that he wasn't the least bit tempted to make a "wood" related joke would usually have had Hyde worried for his infamous wit, but he was too baffled to do anything but repeat:

"What the hell was that?"

He nearly regretted that question two seconds later when he got the answer:

"I think it was that freaky storm the other day. I ran from my car to Jake's house and then I was suddenly hit by something. It was like lightning. It's like in the super hero comics, man, it's all real." Colling looked as though that ought to explain everything and even though he hated to admit it to even himself, Hyde thought it somehow did. It didn't explain one small detail, however.

"And how the hell did you find out you could split trees and shit? It's not something you try to do on a regular basis, is it?"

"He made my baseball bat fly." Jake piped in.

"Is that code for something?" Hyde asked suspiciously.

"We were hanging out in his room the night of the storm. We were talking, started roughing around. Then I said something about knocking his head in with his baseball bat. I looked at it leaning on the wall next to the door-"

"And then it like flew towards my head!" Jake exclaimed, making it sound like the best thing to ever happen .Colling didn't seem too impressed with being interrupted like that. It was obvious he considered himself the boss of this little group and Hyde supposed his new found "power" only boosted this feeling of self-import.

He could tell that Colling was about to get into another monologue, so he quickly threw in a question.

"So you guys just guessed it was you who did that? And then what? Did you try to manipulate something else?"

"Of course. Who wouldn't, after all?" Colling replied importantly. "I couldn't do anything at first, though. Well, nothing I intended to do. I tried to move the bat again and then I wanted to do something to Jake's dresser but nothing happened. But then, I went home later that night and managed to rip down part of the oak tree in front of my room after staring at it half the night. I've been getting better at it during the last couple of hours."

That wasn't what Hyde wanted to hear at all. It seemed to back up Forman's theory. He hadn't been completely "immune" last night when he couldn't see Fez and felt something rush through him for a millisecond when he had touched Jackie… That had changed quickly overnight. Now, none of their powers worked on him at all. Maybe Eric and Fez had gotten better at controlling it during the last few hour as well and maybe Jackie, too. He honestly hoped Jackie had gotten some kind of control over whatever it was she did whenever she touched guys. Hey, would it work with girls as well? Hmmm… He quickly shook off those thoughts. Definitely no time for stuff like that now.

"So… quite impressive, huh?" Colling asked after a few seconds of silence, clearly fishing for compliments. Hyde would probably have told him to get bent any other day but he had one last question to ask.

"What about the film I bought from you? Where'd you get that?"

"Same place as usual," Colling shrugged. Then a smile spread across his face. "Hey… Did you get hit by something as well?" When Hyde didn't say anything, he shrugged again. "I can tell you, it's not the film. I've been buying from the same guy for two years now and this is the first time something like this has happened."

Hyde didn't really believe in his weed theory anymore. He hadn't really believed it since he had woken up this morning to find an invisible Fez and then a very hairy Bob back home but it was something to hold on to and the only thing he could investigate right now.

So he said: "Next time you see him, ask if anything changed about his… technique or supply. Whatever."

Colling looked at him as if to say "Why would I?" so Hyde took off his shades, took a step forward and glowered up at him.

"Indulge me." The "or else…" didn't need saying. Hyde's reputation preceded him and for once, that was a good thing.

Colling swallowed and looked around at his friends nervously.

"Sure, man" he eventually said, clearly trying to sound haughty but failing.

Hyde was back in his car five minutes later and took a deep breath after closing the door behind him. This was bad. Forman and Fez were just playing around with their powers. Jackie had actually been a victim of her own power so far and it was sure to stay that way until she learned to control it somehow. But how many other people were walking around right now, discovering their new supernatural abilities? And was it only Point Place?

Colling was an idiot but he was also pretty full of himself, so he actually might proof dangerous someday soon. And Bob? He had been at this church thing with the Forman's during the storm so he probably hadn't been hit. Had somebody else caused all the hair to start growing? If yes, that was a very stupid power to have, Hyde thought. Not dangerous yet, but who knew what it would develop into? Colling had said himself that he was getting better at manipulating wood and his power was probably growing stronger as well.

What was happening here? And why did he feel like it was his responsibility to find out the reason for all this? It was Forman who constantly fantasized about being a super hero, not him.

He sighed and started the engine. There was no use thinking about of all this now, he supposed. He would pay Colling another visit in a week or so and if he didn't have any answers then, he would have to find the source himself.

When he got home later that evening after a short stop at The Hub and another little detour to check on Leo (who was confused as ever but fine), Jackie and Fez had already gone home. But then he had to listen to Eric talk about how cool mind reading was and how he was actually getting the hang of blocking out others thoughts if he wanted to. That didn't improve his mood much.

The last thing Eric told him before Hyde went to bed was that he was planning to leave for California the next day before noon and would like him to come along. Hyde told him that that sounded about as appealing as shaving Bob head to toe and went to bed. He would probably have prayed for quiet the next day if he believed in any kind of God besides Clapton. Praying to Clapton for anything else than loose girls or concert tickets just didn't seem right.

Any hopes for a quiet day were crushed right after he got out of bed the next morning. Eric was watching TV in the basement, stating that he hadn't been able to sleep half the night.

Hyde changed and got himself a cup of coffee before sitting down in his usual spot. "Are you sure you're not going to fall asleep on the road later?" He asked.

"Not really, I'm too nervous. Besides, I'm not going to leave for a couple more hours at this rate."

"What do you mean?"

Eric shook his head. "I can't believe you didn't hear Jackie barging in here this morning."

Not Jackie again.

"What?" He wasn't actually sure he wanted to know the answer.

"Yeah, she came in here at like seven. I never thought she was a morning person and let me tell you she isn't. She was even meaner than usual and-"

"Eric."

"Okay, okay. She came in here and bullied me into giving her the keys to my Vista Cruiser. She said she couldn't take her father's car where she was going, it was too expensive."

Hyde felt his skin start to tingle unpleasantly. Something bad had happened, he just knew it. He didn't even feel like taking the piss out of Eric for being bullied around by a midget.

"Do you know where exactly she wanted to go?" He didn't even bother to try and sound casual.

"No. She was completely beside herself and talking about this guy she had met at the mall. Said she had to go see him immediately and she would be back later. I've never seen her like that before."

Hyde jumped up and didn't even bother to consider his options. There only was one, anyway.

"Come on, we're going after her."

"What? Why? I'm not going. Bewitched is on this morning."

"You'll have to come if you want your Cruiser back and leave today. I'm going to kill Jackie when we find her and I can't take back both cars."

Eric quickly followed his best friend out the basement and to his El Camino. "Can you kill her slowly? It's always a slow death in my dreams."


	4. Snappy Kakkie

"So, don't get me wrong. I mean, I'd probably enjoy killing Jackie as much as the next man, but I'm not sure driving around without a clue as to where exactly we're going is going to work" Eric said, sitting in the passenger seat of the Camino. He was munching on a chocolate bar that he found in the glove department. He hadn't bothered to ask Hyde how long it had been in there, so Hyde didn't bother to tell him "since before I got it."

"She told you she couldn't take her father's car there, because it was too expensive. I can think of only one place around here that she would consider so much below her stupid standards." Hyde kept his eyes on the road and gripped the steering wheel hard. He still couldn't believe he was doing this. Saving her. Again. He wished he could go back to last week when things had still been normal. Sure, all this superpower nonsense would seem exciting to anyone who wasn't affected by it and there was so much going on that Eric and Jackie weren't yapping about their broken hearts all the time. But in retrospect, their whining suddenly didn't seem all that bad anymore. He'd much rather ignore the usual pouting, self-absorbed, whining Jackie than do whatever it was he was doing now.

"So we're off to your old neighborhood then?" Eric asked dubiously. "What if that's not what she meant? There are lots of other places outside of Point Place that Jackie would deem below her standards, you know. We're talking probably 95 percent of the continent here."

"We won't know until we start looking for her." Hyde bit out aggressively.

"Man, why does this bother you so much? Jackie was running around like a beheaded chicken when I saw her but that's nothing new. She just said she wanted to see a guy. Apart from stealing my car I don't see what the big deal is." Eric turned to look out of the passenger window but his head immediately whipped around again, eyes focused intently on his friend. "No. There is no way in hell. Don't tell me you're-"

"Shut up."

"Oh my God, you're jealous!" Eric accused. "What the hell is it with Jackie? First Kelso's mad about her, then Fez and now you? Who's gonna be next – Bob?!"

That's when Hyde decided that his friend wasn't getting the severity of the situation they were in. So he pulled over and killed the engine.

Eric looked a bit nervous all of a sudden and held up his hands. "Hey, no offense. I mean, you… She… Please don't hit me."

Hyde took off his glasses and threw them on the dashboard. "I'm not going to hit you. Just shut up. You don't get what's going on here, do you?"

And from the look on his face it was clear that Eric didn't. On the other hand, Hyde had to admit his friend didn't have a whole lot of information yet.

"I'm pretty sure she was talking about that creep from the mall and there is no way in hell even Jackie would be dumb enough to just go over to his place. She was scared at the mall and something was wrong with him. He even said they would be seeing each other again. Haven't you thought about why Bob's hair started to grow like that? What if someone made that happen with their power or whatever? You said yourself that others might have gotten hit as well. And then yesterday, at the park, I met Colling and…" He hesitated for a second. He hadn't told Eric about what he had seen at the park yet, because he had wanted to think about everything for a while, at least sleep on it. He knew this would cause Eric to either freak or start planning his super hero squad.

"And what?" Eric prompted impatiently.

"He split a tree in half!" He couldn't keep his voice from rising an octave. It wasn't every day you had to tell another person about your tree-splitting drug dealer.

"With his mind, man. He just split it in two. I talked to him and he was talking about the storm and how he was hit by something as well. So it wasn't just us that night and what if that mall guy has a power as well? What if he can make chicks do whatever he wants? Or people in general?"

Eric looked at him dumbly. "Brad Colling split a tree? He just looked at it and split it?"

"Yes! Do you get it now? We have to find her. She might be under some kind of trance." He started the engine again and pulled back out on the road.

"That would be a neat power to have, don't you think?" Eric said after a while. "Controlling girls like that. Maybe he can even control whoever he wants, chicks, guys, animals… Much cooler than your immunity deal."

Hyde smirked. "I'll remind you of that when he makes you hand wash his underwear."

"Do you think I should go to California?" Eric asked, changing the topic not so subtly.

Hyde had half a mind to tell him to get bent, he had more important stuff on his mind right now. But then he thought, what the hell? More important stuff? Sure, Eric's wussy talk and self-doubt weren't exactly high on his priority list, even on a quiet day, but it was still more important than worrying about Jackie, right? Right. Lots of things were more important than thinking about Jackie. Like how the sun was hurting his eyes or if Bewitched would be on tomorrow morning as well. Samantha, now that was a woman. She wouldn't have let some idiotic blonde mall lurker guy corner her and then gone off to look for him the very next day. Jackie was such a ditz. He was glad she wasn't an actual witch though, just acting like one. He didn't even want to imagine what would have happened if that lightning had given her the ability to get anything she wanted by just wiggling her cute little nose.

"Hyde?"

Damn, how long had he been thinking about Jackie now and not answered Forman? And wait a minute, Jackie's nose wasn't cute. Just little. Like everything about her and he didn't like little. He liked a hand full. Stupid Jackie.

"I don't know, man…" He eventually said and he really didn't. Would he go after Donna if he was Forman? Probably not. He just wasn't the type to go that extra mile for something. Quite literally in this case. He'd much rather be alone than with someone who made him work so hard for their company. But Eric was different and it would affect their whole group of friends if they didn't work out their differences one way or another.

So he gave Eric a quick look and said. "Just do whatever you think is right. I'm not into this whole relationship mush but you're completely useless when Donna isn't around. She'll have to come back eventually anyway but maybe she'll be in a more forgiving mood on a sunny beach than in your basement."

They didn't talk much after that and were soon driving slowly around Hyde's old neighborhood. He was sure that nobody besides Princess Jackie would consider it a very run-down area. It wasn't as nice as the part of Point Place where the Forman's, and now he, lived, but it wasn't particularly dangerous to hang out here and most people kept to themselves. That actually was quite different from the Forman household. None of his old neighbors had ever popped in for an unannounced visit like Bob always did. Then again, Edna hadn't exactly made their home a very comfortable and welcoming one.

"You really think he lives here? Wouldn't you have seen him before?"

"People move." Hyde simply said. Especially in a place like this people seemed to come and go. He had seen moving vans on surrounding houses' driveways quite frequently while living here.

"What if we don't find his house?"

Hyde sighed. "Why are you asking me all those stupid questions?"

Eric shrugged. "There's just so much going on right now and I'm not sure if this power stuff is a good thing anymore… Of course it's really cool, but being able to read people's minds sounds a lot more fun than it actually is. In the last two days, I heard six people thinking I was an idiot. It's one thing to hear them say it but to hear them just think it while smiling sweetly at me is a different story."

Hyde was scanning the road and surrounding area closely while he drove. Still no sign of Eric's car. Shit. He had really hoped he'd find her here, because he didn't want to end up searching not only Point Place but maybe Kenosha as well. He really, really didn't. But damned if he wouldn't end up doing exactly what he didn't want like always when she was involved. It dawned on him that Eric had actually asked the right question a few minutes ago – what the hell was it with her?

"Okay, I can tell you're back in Jackieland again." Eric sounded annoyed. "So I'm just going to ask you a stupid question concerning her. This guy was really into her, right? And you believe that he can somehow control her and made her want to see him. Does he know about her power? What happens if he touches her? I mean, it won't exactly be rape if she thinks she wants it, but…." He took a good look at Hyde's stony profile and blanched. "Okay, shutting up now."

Oh yes, Hyde thought, he would definitely search all of Kenosha as well if he had to.

Luckily for him, it turned out he wouldn't. Ten minutes later they were nearly out of the area again after driving through every street as slowly as he dared. The last thing he needed was someone calling the cops because they thought he was about to drag someone into his car. People these days were paranoid like that. They were about to give up and look somewhere else when Eric pointed ahead of them, stopping Hyde from turning the car around.

"There it is!" He said. His car was parked in an open garage, big enough to fit two cars. The other parking space was filled with old furniture and garbage, stacked in high piles. There were two more cars parked in the driveway, effectively blocking the Cruiser from the street. Shit. That probably meant that there were more guys in the house than just Blondy.

"I'm really going to get mad if any of that junk falls onto the Cruiser."

Hyde ignored his friend, parked on the side of the road and got out of the car. The garage belonged to a medium sized clinker house. It had floor to ceiling windows but all the curtains were drawn. The front lawn wasn't very much cared for, like most in this neighborhood. The grass looked more dead than alive and stood about 10 inches high. On his way over to the front door, Hyde could see why the garage wasn't closed – the door hung off the ceiling at a weird angle and he thought Forman should probably be worried about the heavy wood falling on his car, not the rubbish stacks.

Hyde reached the front door before Eric could catch up with him and banged on it loudly four times. He could hear music playing inside. Bennie and the Jets by Elton John. Oh, come on. He banged on the door three more times. The music stopped.

"No one's answering." Eric said, stating the obvious.

They could hear hushed voices coming from inside now, all of them sounding pretty feminine to Hyde's ears. Then a male voice and quiet once more.

"Open up!" Hyde said loudly, kicking the door this time before taking two steps back. Eric looked around frantically, making sure none of the neighbors came out of their houses.

"Maybe we should look for a backdoor or-" He started to say but was interrupted by the crashing noise of Hyde throwing his shoulder into the door.

Hyde stumbled into the house, surprised. The last time he had done this a couple of years ago he had to try a lot harder than this. Then again, this door seemed pretty old and he had gotten broader since then. Once he had righted himself again, his eyes were drawn to movement on his left side. He was facing a dark, ratty living room filled with people. Seven girls just standing there, looking at him with calm expressions. One of them was Jackie, he didn't recognize any of the other ones. The next thing he noticed, and he felt quite ridiculous for it, was that the dirty orange carpet clashed horribly with the dark red sofa and chairs. And brown walls, really? A slight movement to his right quickly brought his attention back to the girls who were still standing around the room quietly. Something about them seemed off. It took him a few seconds to figure it out but when he took a good look at Jackie, it hit him. She had a peculiar look about her he had only seen a couple of times before. He had seen her high out of her mind countless times in the last couple of years.

It only took her three hits to get there – she'd look around the circle with shiny eyes, giggle and lick her lips every other minute. She'd have trouble standing up but once she gained her footing she'd be able to skip, actually skip, around and swing her hair from left to right. This, however, was different. She was swaying lightly and held her arms at an odd angle like she was trying to keep what little balance she had left. Her eyes were unfocused and it looked like she had trouble glancing at any one thing for much longer than five seconds. The last time he had seen her like this had been the beginning of the summer, right after Kelso had left. She was completely drunk.

Once Hyde was able to take his eyes off of her to look at the other girls, he wasn't surprised to see they were in much the same state as her. He felt the knot that had formed in the pit of his stomach tighten even more when he saw that one of them was already partially undressed. She wasn't wearing a shirt anymore and her jeans were halfway down her backside. So, what, Blondy had gotten them here using his weird power and then gave them alcohol for…. Fun? He surely didn't need it to make them more willing if he had been able to get them here sober in the first place.

"He got them here using his weird power and then got them drunk for fun? What the hell?"

Hyde frowned when Eric spoke up and wondered whether his friend was able to read his mind after all. But a quick glance at the skinny boy told him that wasn't the case. Eric was just as confused and shocked as Hyde, both wondering the same thing.

If Blondy himself was shocked he masked it quite well. His face had shown mild surprise upon Hyde's loud entrance but now it was impassive. Much too calm for someone who had basically just kidnapped and molested 5 obviously underage and hopelessly sloshed girls, if you asked Hyde.

"How did you find me?"

"It wasn't that difficult after Jackie here stole my car to go into a supposedly run-down area. Didn't take a genius to figure out where she was going" Eric said boisterously, causing Hyde to roll his eyes.

Blondy was still standing behind the row of girls, using them as some kind of shield. His now narrowed eyes fixed on the back of Jackie's head and Hyde was about to ask him what the hell his problem was now when Eric started to laugh.

"He wanted all the girls to just get to him without talking to anyone. He was so sure about himself that he didn't even bother to hide their cars. Seems his power isn't that strong yet…. Or Jackie's big mouth is just uncontrollable."

Blondy's face fell. "So I'm not the only one with a power, huh? I thought as much after I saw your stupid bitch of a friend at the mall. I knew what happens when you touch her can't be normal."

Hyde took a step forward, leaving a suddenly very nervous looking Eric behind.

"Did you touch her?"

The guy, with no noteworthy features but his bandaged nose broke out into a slow, haughty smile. "Jealous, are we?"

"Did you touch her?" Hyde repeated, taking another step into the room. He was now standing nearly directly in front of two blonde girls. They were swaying but other than that they were completely motionless, just staring ahead. He wasn't even sure he had seen any of them blink since he had entered. One of the blonde girls was the partially undressed one. This realization made his anger boil even more. The girl was just standing there, not even trying to cover herself up. He didn't know her, but he had a feeling that wouldn't normally be the case.

Hyde himself was no gentleman and knew he treated girls badly from time to time but this was crossing a line. If they hadn't interrupted this little party Blondy was having, he was sure things would have gone much further than this. Jackie was still completely dressed but who knew how long that would have been the case.

Seeing something like this happen to someone he didn't know was bad enough but imagining it happening to Jackie nearly drove him insane with rage. She was his friend after all. Whenever the hell that had happened. Probably sometime between Kelso cheating on her with Laurie and her starting to call him Steven.

Maybe sensing that Hyde was close to losing his control, Blondy decided to answer truthfully: "Not yet. I wasn't sure about touching her, so I figured I'd have one of the other girls have a go first. To test the waters, you know?" He smirked. "Want to watch?"

Eric barely had time to sigh and mumble "What a dillhole" before Hyde charged forward. He managed to get in between the two blonde girls but they were still completely unresponsive, so when Hyde bumped into them, Eric had to jump forward as well to catch one of them. To his obvious discomfort it was the nearly naked one. Hyde was completely unaware of what was happening, his sole focus was on Blondy. The other man had taken off running as well and was nearly through a door at the back of the room when Hyde got to him.

Blondy had been in the process of opening the door so the two of them stumbled into the other room and out of Eric's sight. That way the youngest Forman was the only one present in the living room when the girls regained "consciousness", which wasn't a very pleasant experience for any of them. The girls would probably have been disoriented as hell anyway but being drunk didn't make matters any better. Eric was now faced with five stumbling, babbling and in two cases crying girls. Not to mention the kicking and screaming undressed one still lying in his arms. Hyde emerged from the other room a few minutes later, shaking his right.

"Man, I would've thought a broken nose was softer than-" He came to an abrupt standstill, quietly taking in the scene in front of him. Eric was standing amidst a group of stumbling, whining girls looking like a deer caught in headlights (pants down or not). It would have been funny, really, if he hadn't known what had caused this scene in the first place. He looked over at Jackie who was kneeling on the floor. She looked up at him with wide eyes and he immediately knew what was going to happen next. It had turned into some kind of weird imperative by now, hadn't it? So he didn't even try to fight it when she got up on wobbly legs and stumbled over to him.

"Steven!" She exclaimed almost comically, clinging to him.

"What happened?" Eric asked, finally dropping the squirming blonde in his arms.

"Knocked him out. Actually knocked him out five times, I guess. He won't wake up any time soon."

"That explains…" Eric gestured around the confused girls. "Well, this. What should we do now? We can't just leave them, can we?"

"What the…. fuck did ya do to me?" The dropped blonde slurred, rolling over on the ground.

"Well…." Hyde looked around, trying to ignore Jackie who was hanging on to his left arm like a drunk monkey. He had no idea what to do now. They couldn't very well let the girls get themselves home. Dropping them off was out of the question as well. They didn't remember what had happened to them, so it was entirely possible that they would all end up blaming Eric and him. His eyes once again fell onto the undressed girl. She had fallen asleep. The other girls seemed to calm down rapidly as well. Even Jackie had nearly stopped pulling on his arm. Just how much did they have to drink? He decided not to worry about that now, because a solution to their problem was quickly presenting itself.

Twenty minutes later, Hyde was back behind the wheel of his El Camino, Jackie asleep in the back seat. The girls in the house had quickly dozed off one after the other so Eric and Hyde had been able to go through their purses, which were strewn across the hall, and figure out which keys went with which car through trial and error. The cars which had been blocking the Vista Cruiser were now parked across the front lawn and Eric pulled out of the driveway, following Hyde. They figured Blondy wouldn't come to any time soon so they would have enough time to find a public phone somewhere on the outskirts of Point Place and make an anonymous call to the police, telling them about a guy who had kidnapped a couple of underage girls and then got them drunk in his house. Hyde was positive the girls wouldn't remember them clearly and Blondy wouldn't spill much either. Even if he did, he didn't know their names or where they lived. He would have a hard enough time coming up with a plausible explanation for what the police would find in his house.

Eric was still hell-bent on leaving for California today. Red and Kitty wouldn't be back home until the evening, so he still had a few hours left to get far enough away from Point Place for Red not to be able to hunt him down. Hyde and Jackie would go with him. Just yesterday Hyde would never have believed this was happening but he was fresh out of ideas. This whole power business was getting out of hand and he couldn't go on running after Jackie day after day just to save her. She had proven time and time again that she wasn't able to look after herself even without this weird stuff happening. So maybe getting out of this mess for a couple of days would help matters. Maybe things would even be back to normal once they returned?

He had a feeling he was fooling himself but he didn't even care right now. If all else failed, he would at least have Kelso back. Pummeling the idiot never failed to lift his spirits. So the three of them were going on a road trip. A look in the rear view mirror made him sigh. If only Jackie could stay asleep the whole time…

Another fifteen minutes later Hyde and Eric were standing next to the Vista Cruiser. Hyde had just dispatched the phone call and they were discussing their next steps. Eric wasn't very happy when Hyde told him that yes, he would come along, but so would Jackie.

"Can't we just leave her?"

Forman's question was answered with a loud drunk giggle coming from out of Hyde's Camino. One of the doors was pushed open and Jackie came tumbling out.

Eric pulled a face. "Okay, I guess we can't. But as soon as we get to California she's Kelso's problem again. This is all his fault anyway."

"Hey guys, guys!" Jackie was sitting cross-legged on the sidewalk next to the parked Camino, holding up her arms for no apparent reason.

"You are my best friends. Like… sersly." She ended that sentence with a hiccup and another giggle. Hyde and Eric exchanged a look. This would usually have started a heated conversation followed by a round of rock paper scissors to determine who would have to pick her up and take her in his car. Now that Eric couldn't touch her though, there really was no question as to who would have to do the honors.

"Ooookay. Let's go back to the house. I'm already packed and put my stuff into the trunk yesterday. We have to get your things." Eric said, making a big show of ignoring Jackie who had just entered into a very off key rendition of the Mary Tyler Moore theme song.

Hyde nodded, his eyes still on Jackie. "I want to get out of here as soon as possible. I'll take her and go get my stuff. You go over to Jackie's and pack a bag for her with whatever. She wouldn't be much help picking something out anyway."

"What?! No! No way. Why can't you do that with Jackie and I get your stuff?"

The look Hyde gave him spoke volumes. It was obvious he didn't care about what Eric packed for Jackie but he didn't trust his friend with his own clothes.

"It's not like anybody at her house is gonna give a shit," Hyde said. "Her parents are never there and I doubt the cleaning lady will care enough to ask you anything that could get you into trouble."

"You're gonna make it after aaaaall!" Jackie ended her little sidewalk performance by pretending to throw a hat into the air. "You hear that, Eric?" The way she said his name made it sound more like "Ewig".

"You're gonna make it after all! Michael's gunna love you again!"

This caused Hyde to snigger and before he could even start to tease his friend about his impending make up session with Michael Kelso, Eric got into his car.

"Let's meet in half an hour in front of Leo's Photo Hut and get to the highway from there."

With that he drove off, suddenly very keen on getting to Jackie's house.

Hyde's face grew grim again when he was faced with the problem at hand: Getting Jackie off the ground and into the car without causing her to draw even more attention to herself. They were in a residential area right between his old neighborhood and the Forman's. The ruckus Jackie was making was sure to be heard by anyone in the street who was at home right now. He took a few steps towards her but his attention was drawn to the other side of the street when he heard a car door slam shut and a motor roaring to live.

He looked up and across the street in time to see a car driving past them. What he saw, or thought he saw, behind the wheel gave him another pause. He could have sworn he had just seen a monkey in a flowery dress. The woman, he guessed, had been covered in hair much like Bob this morning…

Okay, it was definitely time to get out of here and NOT think about this for at least a few days. That decision made him go over to Jackie, who had somehow made her way over to one of the front lawns unnoticed. She was now sitting on the grass and staring up at the sun.

"Get up" he said as he stepped in front of her. She squinted up at him and smiled broadly.

"Nooooo!" This was followed by another fit of giggles.

Hyde sighed. He knew this wasn't going to get anywhere unless he took action. He had rarely seen her drunk because she always said she didn't enjoy the taste of alcohol that much. But he had enough experience with Drunk Jackie to know this could take hours if he didn't do anything. So he grabbed her by the arms and pulled her up. The sudden movement caused her to stumble and fall into him. She tried to hug him, but he was still holding her by the upper arms, away from him. To anybody passing by it would have looked like the two of them were performing some weird dance.

He sighed and took a few seconds to consider the possibility of her getting sick all over him. Then he thought "screw it" and threw her over his right shoulder, causing her upper body to hang upside down across his back. He started walking and heard Jackie start to giggle. Again. He was afraid she'd never stop.

"Ooooooh. You're such a gen… gennleman!" She punctuated her statement with a firm slap to his backside which nearly caused him to drop her. He managed to get her over to the car, set her down and could even convince her to get into the backseat without much incident. They still had 25 more minutes to go before they would have to meet Eric and he figured they'd be able to make it if she just kept quiet.

That wasn't what Jackie had in mind though.

"Is my fault, isn't it?" She asked quietly.

He suddenly felt like slamming his head into the wheel. Instead he grabbed his shades from the dashboard and put them on, closing his eyes.

"What?"

"I always want every guy to like me. It's my fault I'm… like this now. Right?"

Hyde shook his head but before he could formulate an answer, she went on.

"What if I'll never touch any… anybody? Like, ever again? I can only touch you and you're the only one who doesn't want me to touch him."

He snorted. He couldn't help it. Assuming that everybody wanted to be touched by her was so Jackie. Thinking that Hyde didn't want it was new though.

"And what if…"

He waited for her to continue and could feel himself growing restless. She sounded much too sad for his liking. This was getting too emotional. He didn't do emotional. What the hell could he tell her? Nothing he could say would make it any better. Her "power" was horrible and would probably make her feel very lonely eventually. They didn't even know for sure if she could touch girls yet. He couldn't fathom why but Jackie had always craved other people's attention and loved being surrounded by others. That wouldn't work much longer if they couldn't come up with a solution to all this soon.

"And what if what, Jackie?" He asked, because he didn't know what else to say.

"What if… I want to hug my dad?"

This question made his stomach hurt and even though she sounded like she was about to cry and he felt like an asshole about it, he simply started up the car and drove back to the Forman's without another word to her.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I hope you liked it so far and would be happy to get a review from you :) Next chap will be up soon!


End file.
